Bachelorette Alum Chase McNary Welcomes 1st Baby with Wife Ellie: 'Fully Wrapped Up in This Newborn Bubble' (Exclusive)

Chase McNary, a previous suitor on JoJo Fletcher's Bachelorette season and a season 6 Bachelor in Paradise contestant, has welcomed his first baby with wife Ellie McNary (née White). The milestone comes just shy of a year from the pair's romantic, Colorado mountaintop wedding in July 2024.

Chase and Ellie reveal to PEOPLE exclusively that their son, Cooper Crash, was born 11 days early on Saturday, May 10, just ahead of Mother's Day.

"The entire experience was intense, fast, instinct-driven and magical, all at the same time," Chase says, recalling the birth. "Despite the lack of early preparation, Ellie delivered safely and powerfully, and Cooper Crash was born healthy, happy and perfect. We reflected afterward on the beauty and unpredictability of birth — how quickly things can change and how capable the body is when left to do what it was designed to do."

The entire experience left the couple "in awe of the speed, power and emotional depth of birth." At this time, Ellie and Cooper "are doing fantastic," and their little one is "as healthy as can be and passing all his tests with flying colors."

"I couldn’t have dreamt up a more perfect delivery and I’m still in such awe of what my body was capable of," Ellie tells PEOPLE. "It is so beautiful what women experience on the journey of motherhood. I knew I wanted to go unmedicated and as naturally as possible, if my body allowed me, and I can’t believe I was lucky enough to get that experience."

"A 15-minute hospital labor is wild, and it all happened so fast, but I’m just thankful he didn’t come in the car on the way in, if I’m being honest," she says, noting that holding Cooper Crash for the first time was "the biggest, most overwhelming love I never knew existed."

"Holding him and seeing both me and Chase in his little face has healed parts of me I didn’t even know needed healing," she adds. "I’m fully wrapped up in this newborn bubble — and honestly, I’m not sure I ever want to come out."

First-time dad Chase says, "If I didn’t believe in the miracle of life before, I do now."

"There are no words to describe the feeling I got when I heard that first little cry," he adds. "It honestly changed me as a man in that instant."